Page 2 | Cat and Air bnb

Pramconfused · 2025-06-18T10:25:58+00:00

Hi I"m considering trying to put our house on air bnb to earn a bit of money. But we have 2 cats! I can say we have two cats that will require a cat sitter to visit the property once a day. Has anyone got experience of being an air bnb host with cats in situe? Best wishes + thanks in advance

reversegear · 18/06/2025 16:40

100% make it clear as I’m highly allergic. So wouldn’t go, but if you had dogs…

CiaoMeow · 18/06/2025 16:43

I would LOVE to stay where there are resident cats!! I miss mine when we are away.

Having said that though, there is NO WAY I would be happy leaving my cat with strangers. We always book her into the same cattery and I have peace of mind that she's well cared for. You just never know with people.

HerdingWiredCats · 18/06/2025 17:07

Is this occasional AirBnBing of the house such as when you are on holiday? Why not, some people would be more than happy to look after cats. And if it’s a home being let out rather than permanent holiday accommodation then you are going to appeal to certain families anyway, the type that don’t expect everything to be perfect, who just want a home from home.

gemma19846 · 18/06/2025 17:12

Is this a joke? Youre actually thinking of leaving your pets with random people who might abuse them!

Ireallywantadoughnut36 · 18/06/2025 19:53

Having an air bnb is seriously hard work, you need to ensure you're gas safe, electrically inspected, all your devices should be pat tested, you need to comply with fire safe legislation including a risk assessment, linked fire alarms, emergency lighting etc. You need specialist insurance because your home insurance won't cover you if you rent to air bnb guests. Nowadays you likely need professional photos to stand out and you need to be available for a myriad of things from finding the wifi code to people getting lost.
I think the cats will appeal to some, as long as you're super up front, but we get guests who don't respond to our messages and who have done really irresponsible things (smoking, leaving the oven on etc), do you really trust your animals with total strangers?
You can do it though, if all of that doesn't put you off!!

rainandtrains · 18/06/2025 20:39

@Pramconfusedi do exactly this. Rent my house out when we go on holiday and it comes with a cat. The cat is clearly mentioned in the listing title and description and so far we've had positive feedback about her. She is very friendly and doesn't use a litter tray. My guests feed her twice a day. To all the posters suggesting there are sick people out there who would harm my cat, I'd say you're already taking a leap of faith letting your family home out to strangers. That's why I vet the booking requests and check reviews beforehand. I also think I have faith in humanity and choose to believe that the likelihood of someone harming my cat is so tiny. You can't go through life always expecting the worst.

I do think it takes us a bit longer to get bookings than it might without a cat but cat allergies are quite common so our pool of potential guests is smaller. Having said that we still get a pretty good deal and don't think the cat factor reduces our income significantly.

Melonjuice · 19/06/2025 13:03

ridiculously stupid idea

Snoken · 19/06/2025 17:52

rainandtrains · 18/06/2025 20:39

@Pramconfusedi do exactly this. Rent my house out when we go on holiday and it comes with a cat. The cat is clearly mentioned in the listing title and description and so far we've had positive feedback about her. She is very friendly and doesn't use a litter tray. My guests feed her twice a day. To all the posters suggesting there are sick people out there who would harm my cat, I'd say you're already taking a leap of faith letting your family home out to strangers. That's why I vet the booking requests and check reviews beforehand. I also think I have faith in humanity and choose to believe that the likelihood of someone harming my cat is so tiny. You can't go through life always expecting the worst.

I do think it takes us a bit longer to get bookings than it might without a cat but cat allergies are quite common so our pool of potential guests is smaller. Having said that we still get a pretty good deal and don't think the cat factor reduces our income significantly.

I think there is a huge difference when it comes to taking a leap of faith by letting people stay in your home vs. taking a leap of faith with an actual living animal. If somebody damages my sofa I can live with that and buy a new one but if somebody hurts my pet because of my faith in humanity I would feel incredibly guilty.

Original poster

Pramconfused · 19/06/2025 19:14

@rainandtrains thanks for this. Do you have a cat flap?
have you ever needed to get a Catsitter to access the property? Just wondering if you have had any guest reactions to that kind of thing

OP posts:

Doone22 · 20/06/2025 08:21

Just take cats with you?

Redburnett · 20/06/2025 09:30

I love cats but there is absolutely no way I would pay to stay somewhere where feeding someone's pets was part of the deal.

rainandtrains · 20/06/2025 11:04

Pramconfused · 19/06/2025 19:14

@rainandtrains thanks for this. Do you have a cat flap?
have you ever needed to get a Catsitter to access the property? Just wondering if you have had any guest reactions to that kind of thing

Yes we have a cat flap and no I don't have anyone else come in when we have guests here. We make it clear in our listing description that looking after the cat is a requirement. Fair enough that some posters wouldn't want to book my house. I'm not forcing anyone to book! Our guests are people who like friendly cats and are happy to feed her and show her some love for a week..anyone who doesn't want to do that, can go elsewhere. It's not a trick, it's clearly part of the deal. As I said it can take some time to get booked, this year I listed the house pretty much as soon as we'd booked our holiday (end of last year) and we only got the second lot of guests confirmed a couple of weeks ago (for August). It's a lovely big house so I expect the cat does put some people off. My next door neighbours come in during the change over to check on the cat and they're always keeping an eye on the house from their side of the fence so I'm not worried.